Three shipments of raw prawns have tested positive for white spot disease since an import ban was lifted, a move devastated farmers battled against and warned was dangerous.
It's been a year since white spot was detected in the Logan River south of Brisbane, crippling Queensland's multi-million dollar prawn industry. While not proven, imported uncooked prawns are a suspected cause of the outbreak.
The federal government banned raw prawn imports in January but lifted the ban in July.
But biosecurity tests have since detected the exotic disease in three consignments despite an enhanced regime that requires exporting countries to certify their shipments are white spot-free.
The federal agriculture department confirmed the three positive tests on Thursday, and has demanded answers from the unnamed countries that exported the diseased prawns.
The infected shipments will not be released by biosecurity officials, and will either be destroyed, sent back to their countries of origin, or cooked to destroy the virus.
The positive tests are sure to alarm the prawn industry, which warned against lifting the import ban.
Logan River prawn farmer Ian Rossmann, from GI Rural, was the first farmer to detect white spot and had to destroy $1 million worth of prawns in the lead up to last Christmas.
He told a Senate committee that looked into the white spot outbreak that it was "purely dangerous" to lift the ban, and doing so had raised industry fears about another outbreak.
Another Logan River prawn farmer Serena Zipf, whose farm was destocked and sterilised after being hit by the disease, questioned the efficacy of certification from overseas authorities.
It "screams of outsourcing biosecurity responsibilities" she said, adding the industry did not believe it would afford them any extra protection.
The Queensland Seafood Industry Association told the committee farmers had "absolutely no confidence in the new testing programs". The Australian Prawn Farmers Association also railed against lifting the ban.
White spot poses no risk to human health but is deadly to prawns.
The white spot outbreak is estimated to have cost prawn farmers and associated industries almost $400 million.
Logan River prawn farms have effectively been shut down for two years after they had to kill their prawn stocks and leave farms idle as part of the decontamination process. Other fisheries around the Logan River also suffered big financial hits as a result of strict movement controls.
